Professional Interest Sections's archives

To borrow a well-known phrase (thanks Mr. Twain), the reports of News Releases’ death have been greatly exaggerated. Not only do releases continue to have a value for brands, helping them break through clutter, build legitimacy, and create a steady stream of sharable content, the truth is, many journalists still love them also.

Here at PWR New Media, we recently surveyed over 200 journalists, asking them about their news release preferences. Not surprisingly, we found that journalists now have fewer resources but more responsibilities than ever before. Sixty-eight percent of our participants reported that they’re responsible for creating online content in addition to their more traditional duties. This means they need story ideas and digital content… constantly!

At this year’s PRSA International Conference we had the opportunity to meet with a number of recent college graduates excited to enter the profession and, even better, those who’ve landed jobs across the country and are hitting the ground running. While some of these junior practitioners are just entering the workforce, it was pleasantly surprising to hear that they are hungry for tips and information on how to be a better PR professional. Almost unanimously, the first few questions from those we met rounded out to “how can I be better at my job?”

This is a preview of PR Boot Camp: Essential Advice For Junior PR Pros. Read the full post

A success story about a successful implementation seizes verbal recommendations and sets them in stone.

Suppose a customer speaks highly of your company to 10 others. That same endorsement in a success story recommends you to hundreds of others in a direct mail campaign and thousands more when it is posted on the web or when it appears in the news media.

Success stories prove you’ve delivered such a highly valued service that you’ve transformed a customer into an advocate who is willing to speak out on your behalf. Launch a more aggressive success story program by first asking:

This is a preview of Success Stories: Your Most Powerful Selling Tools. Read the full post

No, not your singing voice, but your ability to pitch yourself to the next level.

In business and in life, there are many times that we will have to make a pitch to reach goals ranging from a job promotion to earning the business of a potential client. Often, we may find that we are in situations where we’re pitching ourselves without even knowing it. Platforms like social media, projects we take on at work, and volunteer committees we work on are all ways of pitching our capabilities with those around us. For this reason, it is important to properly do your “pre-pitch prework.”

This is a preview of Are You Pitch Perfect? 5 Tips To Help Elevate Your Personal Brand. Read the full post

Ketchum Global Research & Analytics has conducted PRSA’s Membership Study since 2008, testing concepts related to member satisfaction, likelihood to renew and perceived value of various products/services – with the ultimate goal of uncovering drivers of sustained membership and growth. In recent years, PRSA has been challenged with a declining membership pool, so our research set out to understand what appeals most to members from an educational/resource and industry organization perspective to ultimately offer solutions for maintaining PRSA’s strength in the years ahead.

In this year’s study, we saw a pattern in demographics that revealed an interesting predicament for PRSA: as Boomers leave the workforce and retire, they are being replaced in PRSA – albeit not as rapidly – with younger Millennial members. To put the age differences into perspective, in our 2011 study Boomers outweighed Millennials 45% to 27% of total membership – that ratio in 2014 was 29% Boomers to 32% Millennials – a gap which is only expected to increase in favor of the Millennial crowd. With this shift, we’ve seen a change in what members value, revealing an opportunity for PRSA to hone-in on what these younger, less-tenured members look for in PRSA to help maintain its membership pool.

This is a preview of Strategic Ingredients: Inspiration And Innovation. Read the full post

Welcome

Join the public relations conversation and get connected with expert insight from our guest bloggers! The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of PRSA.